CHAPTER XXVI. 



WATCHING AND SPRAYING. 



NOW suppose you have prepared your soil 

 properly, and planted your seed care- 

 fully; that your transplanting has been 

 done, and your crops are growing ; do you think 

 your work is done, and you have only to wait 

 for sun and rain to do the rest? If that is your 

 idea, you are not cut out for a farmer. Get 

 out of the business as soon as you can. There 

 are no "soft snaps" in farming or gardening, 

 on either a large or a small scale. But the man 

 in love with his job, no matter what it is, is 

 not looking for soft snaps, nor does he find his 

 work hard. There is a reward in tilUng the 

 soil and in watching " the green things growing," 

 as Riley has it, that is not excelled by the re- 

 wards of any other calling. 



It is absolutely necessary that you should 

 watch your growing crops, for only in that way 

 can you keep in touch with their needs. The 

 parent who neglects to watch his children and 

 to look out for their physical needs, generally 

 has doctors' bills and anxiety. A little watch- 

 fulness would have revealed the first stages of 

 decay in the teeth; the early signs of adenoid 

 growths; the symptoms of eye-strain, or the 



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